Then I bashed them up in a mortar and pestle. You can always use a blender if you wish.

I prefer a little texture in my food, so I did not totally grind the shallots into nothing-ness.

I toasted some coriander powder in a skillet – this took a minute. DO NOT walk away!

And combined this with dark soy sauce, shallots, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl.

This was placed in a bowl with the chicken.

Along with the water from soaking the tamarind.

Everything was mixed, and the chicken was placed in the fridge, covered, to marinate for several hours.

When I was ready to cook, the chicken and all the liquid was placed in a casserole, and the chicken was cooked, covered, on medium heat for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken was cooked through and had become tender. I gave the chicken a stir occasionally.

Then the chicken was removed, and the gravy was left to thicken in the pot.

I deep fried the chicken until they turned golden brown and drained them on kitchen towels. I guess you can always choose to skip this step if you do not want your chicken to be a little crispy.

Alternatively, you can also shallow fry the chicken using 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

Or, as a reader suggested, you can roast the chicken in an oven too! (Thanks, Michelle Quah for the suggestion!) And another suggested to air fry the chicken, which is also a great idea! (Thanks, Audrey Sim 🙂 )

Finally, just before serving, I added the gravy to the chicken and garnished the dish with some chopped spring onion.

The LAM said this tasted a little like Chicken Rendang, but sweeter (because of the shallots).